32-year old Tar feels like a Non-Player Character in their own life. They’ve been utterly sidelined by their anxiety and they spend all their spare time playing video games. Then they get invited to play Kin, a table-top roleplaying game their friend swears will change their life. And it does, but not in the way Tar expects. Friendship, it turns out, is even better than escapism.
But what none of them knew was that it would change their life a second time. Because the world of Kin is real. And the whole party soon discovers that changing your setting doesn’t change you.
Non-Player Character is a cosy, queer portal fantasy for adults featuring a non-binary autistic protagonist and their found family of fantasy-loving nerds.
A pleasant, low-stakes cosy adventure with found family learning how to get along with each other. The story’s told in first person, past tense by MC Tar. They are sympathetic and we get a full flavour of their challenges and difficulties without (imo) being bogged down in terms of story progress.
I am not, personally, a big fan of portal fantasy. I found this one fine as the focus was on the characters. Sure, the other-world elements were necessary, but the author integrated them nicely into the plot. The LitRPG elements are fairly understated (no pages and pages of stats) although I’m not sure how much the story would appeal to a reader with no RPG experience.
I really enjoyed reading it!
The main character Tar and their anxieties were quite relatable for me. And it was very refreshing for me to see such a character as a main character and hero.
In the story Tar and their TT-RPG group get teleported into the world of their game. They take over some traits and skills of the characters they invented for the game.
I really love how, while being in a fantasy world and being able to do magic is like a dream come true, they run into multiple problems. Like suddenly they really have to sleep together in a crowded tent.
Or like fighting and killing with a sword was fine while playing the game and giving your character a challenging drawback sounded nice, that's not something you want to do or have in real life.
They have to solve all the problems in creative and non-violent ways which to me is very interesting.
